Ask Not When The Bell Will Toll For You

Today I am 40 weeks pregnant. For reference, that is so pregnant. It’s as pregnant as you’re meant to get before you stop being pregnant. I feel very watched pot refusing to boil.

Unfortunately for me, it looks like I’m very comfortable to live in, and so far there are no real signs of imminent baby-arrival. He’s definitely pending, on his way, getting into position and so on, but all at a very leisurely pace that has me in a weird limbo of waiting, trying to enjoy the calm before the storm, but also wanting to get on with it.

This level of preg is quite tiring to maintain, on like, a cellular level, and I’d almost always rather be doing something that feels like forward momentum than just waiting patiently, but I am trying to use it as a mental discipline. Sometimes it’s good to just let things come at their own pace, I tell myself, as I battle the 9am urge to have a nap while planning toddler activities for Laser that don’t involve me having to walk very far. At this point, friends and family are asking if I’m going to get an induction, but I’m reluctant to invite the medical mechanics in to jump-start the process at least for a few more days.

Obviously I’m not going to dismiss doctor’s suggestions if they come in hot and it’s a matter of health risk, but also I understand that scheduling an induction for a convenient time in business hours, and managing the process of birth through manageable chemical and mechanical interventions is a thing that as a working doctor you’d probably prefer to the messy chaos of waiting on the whacky whims of someone’s cervix.

D’Ancey LaGuarde Update

I’ve been assigned an in house editor at Unbound, so now I have a point of contact there (after handing in at the end of September, and chasing them for next steps). Now it’s a matter of:

1) choosing/finding/commissioning/making artwork for inside (and the cover of) the book (that won’t absolutely eat any profit we make), and

2) pinning them down on a release date.

The second is the most infuriating and stressful, as I feel like because people have already paid their money, and I’ve already written the book, that release date ought to be as soon as humanly possible, but Unbound is waving around dates in a very wide range, and I don’t know

a) what their logistics are; OR

b) what my leverage is.

Basically my plan is to get these pictures sorted, then start squeezing for a hard release date, at which point I’ll make them let me do mail outs to the pre-purchase people to keep them in the loop. I want this process to be as transparent as possible, both because I think transparency in business is good as a matter of principle, and because I think publishing is interesting, and because I don’t want people to think I’m fucking them around.

Writers Meetings

As I’ve mentioned, Writers meetings will still run 2x per week all the way through my maternity leave. John Luke Roberts will be running them, and I will drop in here and there, contingent on baby things.

The dates and links are in the Google calendar, which is available here but the links for the next two are here for those of you not tapped into that technology.

I won’t be running salons but hope everyone feels free to keep chatting with each other in the Discord. I’ll miss talking to you all.

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Writers Meeting and Workshop (with Guest Host)

Sunday, 28 January⋅10:00am – 12:00pm (UTC +0)

Time Zone Conversion: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20240128T100000&p1=47&p2=137&p3=197&p4=179&p5=136&p6=152

Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81294886905?pwd=TUZUVWhKQllVYTNoSmpxcTVBb1RWdz09

Sunday, 28 January ⋅9:00 – 11:00pm (UTC +0)

Time Zone Conversion: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20240128T210000&p1=47&p2=137&p3=197&p4=179&p5=136&p6=152

Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84216442234?pwd=YTFSa28xSG1Tdy9zRjlPQnowZ3BEQT09

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Now off to do some jumping up and down and eat spicy food etcetera until this young man decides to enter the world.